The examples Tufte gives in Chapter 2 of Envisioning Information all contain immense amounts of data. In the axonometric map of midtown New York, there are labels for ever single street/avenue, depictions of every building/tree/etc. When the viewer steps back they can maybe identify larger buildings, but mostly see a big picture of the layout of Manhattan, but then they can also move closer and see the individual buildings that are distinct from each other. Tufte points out that the micro/macro technique allows viewers to see all the data at once, instead of spread over multiple diagrams or pages, making it easier to draw conclusions and make comparisons. Viewers also have the option to look closer and see individual data points. When describing the stem and leaf diagrams, Tufte writes, “the same ink serves more than one information purpose.” The “same ink” shows the message of the data set overall, and also the individual data points and what they represent.

The Vietnamese Veterans Memorial example resonated with me the most. It was really interesting that the critical design decision to order names by date of death instead of alphabetical order made such a big difference in the way people interpret the memorial and information. Ordering the names by date allows the data to tell a story and gives more meaning to each individual name, while still retaining the impact of the immense number of names all together.